Johnson’s economic ‘new deal is no deal for Wales’ – Gething

BORIS Johnson’s so-called spending spree to help the economy cope with the “aftershock” of the coronavirus crisis will not lead to a “single penny” of new investment for Wales, said Health Minster Vaughan Gething.

Mr Gething said the Prime Minister’s “New Deal” was nothing more than recycling money found by “looking down the back of departmental sofas”.

Following Mr Johnson’s speech yesterday, Mr Gething told the Welsh Government’s daily press briefing in Cardiff: “It’s a classic challenge of unpicking the rhetoric from the reality.

“I know he’s been presenting it as a ‘New Deal,’ (but) it’s not so much new deal as no deal.

“If you look at what’s actually happening from his announcement today, we don’t understand there was a single penny of new investment for Wales.

“It’s recycling money already announced, and it’s simply looking down the back of departmental sofas to repackage that money. That isn’t a new deal.

“I think at a time when all of us in ministerial office have had to think about how we behave and how we conduct ourselves this time around unprecedented international crisis, the trust in what we say really matters.

“There is no new money being put into England, let alone new money into Wales.”

He added: “We would welcome additional capital spending that is genuinely additional, but that is not what today’s speech by the Prime Minister represents.”

Earlier, Mr Johnson promised his response to the pandemic would not be a return to the austerity that followed the financial crisis, but instead a stimulus package inspired by US president Franklin D Roosevelt, who led America out of the

Great Depression with his New

Deal in the

1930s.

Mr Johnson returned to the theme of his general election campaign, promising to “level up” parts of the country that had been left behind while London and the South East prospered.

In a speech in Dudley – a seat the Tories took from Labour – the PM promised to tackle the “unresolved challenges” of the last three decades, highlighting problems in building, social care and the economy. He acknowledged that jobs which existed in January “are not coming back” after the coronavirus crisis, and the furlough scheme which has seen the state pay people’s wages cannot continue forever.

In response he said “we will offer an Opportunity Guarantee so that every young person has the chance of apprenticeship or an in-work placement so that they maintain the skills and confidence they need to find the job that is right for them”.

Promising to “build, build, build” his way out of the crisis, Mr Johnson said he would slash

“newt-counting” red tape in the planning system to speed up delivery of infrastructure projects and homes.

Opposition MPs accused him of not offering any new ideas and trying to “hoodwink” voters with rehashed manifesto promises, while critics pointed out that the sums promised by the Prime Minister were dwarfed by the funds Mr Roosevelt had spent.

Mr Johnson said the Government intends to spend £5bn “to accelerate infrastructure projects”.

The announcements included:

■ £1.5bn to be allocated this year to hospital maintenance;

■ More than £1bn for a 10-year school rebuilding programme;

■ £100m to be spent on road projects; and

■ £900m for “shovel-ready” local growth projects in England during 2020/21.

The Prime Minister acknowledged “it may seem a bit premature to make a speech now about Britain after Covid” given events in Leicester, where a local lockdown has been imposed.

But “we cannot continue simply to be prisoners of this crisis” and the country “needs to be ready for what may be coming”.

“We’re waiting as if between the flash of lightning and the thunderclap with our hearts in our mouths for the full economic reverberations to appear,” he said.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will set out a plan to support the economy through the first phase of the recovery next week, Mr Johnson said.

To improve connectivity around the country, Mr Johnson said the

There is no new money being put into England, let alone new money into Wales

Health Minister Vaughan Gething

UK Government will carry out a study of all future road, rail, air and cross-sea links between the four nations of the UK.

The Prime Minister said that “too many parts of this country have felt left behind, neglected, unloved, as though someone had taken a strategic decision that their fate did not matter as much as the metropolis”.

Mr Johnson’s speech, at a technical college, was watched by an audience of just 24 people including a handful of journalists.

In response to criticism about the scale of his intervention, the Prime Minister said it was a “speeded up, intensified and increased” version of manifesto pledges.

The Prime Minister also faced scrutiny over an apparent cut in the affordable homes programme – which had been promised as £12.2bn over five years at the Budget in March but is now being stretched over eight years.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the money included “additional funding to support long-term partnerships with the sector over eight years”.

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart backed Mr Johnson’s announcement, adding that he

“looked forward to working with the Welsh Government” to identify projects that will “make a real difference” in Wales.

He said: “Today’s speech has set out the strategy that our government is following to fuel economic recovery right across the UK.

“The review into the improvement of road, rail, air and sea links between our four nations is a vital step forward in bolstering the connectivity of the UK and its internal market.”

“As we begin our economic recovery, it is more important than ever that all four nations work together.”

“This review will strengthen the union and help us to emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever.

“The Prime Minister was clear – we are committed to prioritising infrastructure projects that will boost the economy and create jobs across the UK.

”I look forward to working with the Welsh Government to identify projects in Wales that will make a real difference to people’s lives.”

CBI director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn said a “jobs-first recovery” and infrastructure investment could help limit the economic damage.

But she added that “the reality is that longer-term plans will falter without continued help for firms still in desperate difficulty”. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “The Prime Minister promised a New Deal, but there is not much that’s new, and it’s not much of a deal. “We are facing an economic crisis – the biggest we have seen in a generation – and the recovery needs to match that. “What’s been announced amounts to less than £100 per person, and it’s the reannouncement of many manifesto pledges and commitments.”

I look forward to working with the Welsh Government to identify projects in Wales that will make a real difference to people’s lives

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart